Various support apparatus have been used to support plant material as it grows. Typical such support apparatus includes trellises and cages, such as a tomato cage. One common design of tomato cage includes a plurality of elongate rods and a plurality of rings, all made of metal. The rings are coaxial and vertically spaced from one another and secured to the rods. Often, the diameter of the rings decreases going from the highest ring to the lowest ring. Such a tomato cage is used by inserting the rods into the ground surrounding the roots of the tomato plant. As the plant grows, the stalks are generally maintained within the rings which support the stalks even under the heavy weight of the tomatoes. Such a cage design can be used for other types of plant material, as is well known.
Such a cage design satisfies the basic requirement of supporting the plant. However, any particular cage is fixed in size and cannot adapt to variations in plant size, the growth of the plant or the like. While different cage sizes can be made available, it is difficult to change the cage with a mature plant.
Various designs have been proposed for plant cages allowing for some aspect of adjustability. However, many of these designs are complex and expensive to produce. Likewise, packaging of various designs would be quite difficult. Moreover, adjustability in such designs is relatively limited and may not satisfy the needs from early stage of plant life to full maturity.
The present invention is directed to improvements in adjustable plant cages.